1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for heating an internal combustion engine in cold weather by transferring heated coolant from the cooling system of a hot engine. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus or method having male quick couplings rigidly attached to and communicating with the cooling system of the engine and by using flexible conduits with female quick coupling ends transferring the heated coolant to the cold engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In cold weather, starting a fluid cooled, internal combustion engine sometimes requires any of various expedients such as pre-warm-up of the engine, an electrical "jump" boost, ether injection into the combustion chamber, or even pulling with another vehicle to crank the engine. The extra effort, mentioned above, in trying to start a cold engine is the result of not being able to crank the engine fast enough or to warm-up the intake air. The use of an electrical jump start, ether or pull starting can all have detrimental effects on the engine. Further, more and more new machines are being produced with automatic or power shift transmissions which do not allow pull starting. Electrical head bolt or water jacket heaters or other alternatives but are slow methods of warming an engine and require a source of electricity not always available when using a tractor in a field or a bulldozer on a job site.
The prior art has attempted to solve this problem by interconnecting cooling systems of a cold engine and a heated engine to warm up the coolant of the cold engine. The Collins U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,728 transfers heat from the heated engine to the cold engine using a heat exchanger through which the coolant of the cold engine is pumped and returned to the cold engine at a higher temperature. The drawback of this arrangement is that it requires that the hot engine or service engine be equipped with a heat exchanger.
The Elder U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,825 does not use a heat exchanger but directly mixes the coolant of the two engines. In this case, special hoses are connected to the engine block and communicate with the cooling system of the cold engine. The two hoses normally are connected together allowing coolant to circulate through them. When it is desired to connect the engine to a hot service engine, the hoses are disconnected and are connected to hoses leading from the heater hoses of the service engine. This arrangement, like the Collins patent, requires that one engine be designated as the service engine while the cold engine be equipped only to receive heated coolant from the service engine. Further, the Elder patent requires hoses to be permanently attached to the engine's cooling system thereby incurring an extra cost of hoses and undesirable water circulation, bypassing the normal circulation of water. Furthermore, Elder uses connections to the heater hoses of the hot engine. This allows too large a portion of the hot water to flow through the heater during the warm-up period, thus delaying the warm-up of the cold engine.
There is a need for a maintenance-free system that allows the coolant to be transferred efficiently from a service engine to the cold engine and provides any engine the capability of being used either as a service engine or to receive heated coolant from a service engine.